Joel Bee is excited by the prospect of starting off scratch in the Ballarat Gift on February 4-5.
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Although handicaps are yet to be officially announced, Bee says he will be running from what he describes as the “mark of honour” at the Eastern Oval after taking out the $5000 St Albans Gift, 120m, on Saturday night.
The now Melbourne-based Ballarat sprinter saluted at St Albans from 0.75m ahead of Kevin Brittain (7m).
If his mark was not tough enough for Bee in the first place, had to cope with one-metre penalty after breaking in a semi-final and starting off 0.25m behind scratch.
Bee said the mistake had fired him up and he had still been able to win the semi-final.
He said while going back to scratch would make it tough, it went with success and he was honoured that he would run off the same mark as a former mentor and champion athlete Josh Ross had.
Bee said crowds always got behind scratchmarkers and he was looking forward to that type of support – especially in Ballarat.
“It’d be great to make the final off scratch,” Bee told The Courier.
At the other end of the handicapping scale, his St Albans success means he will get a 0.75m lift for the Stawell Gift, taking him out to 1.5m.
St Albans is one of 17 races at what are ranked as “minor meets” throughout the Victorian Athletic League season which offers an automatic lift for Stawell.
Ballarat is one gift in which the winner does not get a lift for Stawell.
The two days of the 2017 Ballarat Gift meeting will begin from 9am, with the feature final to jump at 3.50pm on Sunday, February 5. This follows the women’s final, which is scheduled for 3.35pm.
Bee’s next assignment is the Maribyrnong Gift on Thursday night, when he will contest a 100m gift and 300m. He believes the longer event is his best chance.